Intercession by dustybritches01
by MeetTheMateContest
Summary: In a desperate moment a mother's prayer is answered in a most unexpected way.


**Title:** Intercession

 **Summary:** In a desperate moment a mother's prayer is answered in a most unexpected way.

 **Pairing:** Edward/Bella

 **Rating:** K

 **Word Count:** 1,156

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 **Intercession**

Tick-tick…Tick, tick…Tick-tick

The rhythm of the right turn signal repeated a macabre staccato as I hung like a marionette in the back of our car, still tangled in my seat belts, my mind trying and failing to grasp the scene around me. My head hurt, my left arm hung limp, and a dark red puddle was forming on the ceiling below me.

Sprawled like a ragdoll on the ceiling of the front seat, Mommy moaned quietly.

She had called my name as the car flew through the air, her voice ringing out in suspended time—an intercession. However, when the car made impact with the earth, slamming into an ancient pine, all praying ceased.

From my suspended position, I could see only tree limbs on the driver's side.

 _Daddy…_

In time, Mommy fell into silence as well, leaving me alone.

I could no longer feel my left arm and I was beginning to see spots as the light faded outside the shattered windows. With a shaky voice, I began to whisper my favorite song from my kindergarten class.

 _The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout…_

When I got to my favorite part:

 _Down came the rain and WASHED the spider out…_

A soft baritone joined in— _Daddy!?_

A stranger's face appeared in the cracked window next to me.

"Hello, Bella, I'm so sorry I'm late," the knot in his throat bobbed as he swallowed thickly.

"It's okay," I whispered as the black spots in my vision grew.

I watched him reach forward and touch Mommy before returning to touch me. His hands were warm. They reminded me of Mommy's hands after I played in the snow all day.

"I'm Edward and I'm going to hold you with one arm while I release your seatbelt. You will fall, but I promise to catch you, my little one."

"K," I tried to nod, but my head wouldn't move.

"One, two, three," he whispered, and then I was falling.

He caught me as he promised and pulled me out of the car. As he carried me away from the wreckage, I looked for Mommy and Daddy, but all I could see was a crushed tangle of metal, shattered glass, and tree limbs. Hunched over the broken car with large limbs falling on either side, it looked as if the tree was eating Daddy's car.

Edward laid me down on the pine needles next to a boulder. He pulled the hem of my skirt modestly over my knees before brushing my tangled hair from my eyes.

The bitter pounding in my head had returned and my whimper spurred him into action.

"Poor baby girl, I'll help you and stay with you. Bella, please don't be afraid," Edward rocked next to me as if he could feel my pain.

"I'm all right, Edward," I tried to reach my hand to his but couldn't move. I looked up into his face as he hovered over me.

He seemed to be college age, with reddish brown hair and bright green eyes, and he had a smile that lit up his face.

"Sweet little angel, you will be all right. I am going to touch you like I did your mother. It won't hurt, I promise." Edward waited until he was sure I felt comfortable with being touched and then proceeded.

He closed his eyes and leaned back on his heels, raising his face to the darkened sky. In time, he rubbed his hands together while his lips moved. Finally, his warm hands started at my feet slowly working up my body, stopping here and there to linger. When he got to my left arm, he stopped and began rocking with hushed whispers. My arm spread with warmth and began to tingle.

"Can you lift it now, Bella?" he asked quietly.

I moved it bracing for a pain that never came.

He nodded satisfied and continued up my shoulder, then to my neck and head. Again, he began rocking with hushedwhispers as he placed his hand at the nape of my neck, under my blood-dampened hair.

I seemed to fade in and out of consciousness as he chanted.

When I woke again the stars were shining above me.

"Sit up, Bella," he said softly.

I turned my head toward his voice and found him smiling in the dark.

"You're cold. Come, let me keep you warm until help comes for you," he gracefully picked me up and carried me to the boulder. He sat me on his lap, wrapping his hoody around me.

"Warm?"

"Yes, Edward, thank you." I felt sleepy, detached.

"I like when you say my name," he said with mild surprise.

"How do you know my name?" I asked rubbing my nose on his hoodie. It smelled of summer—fresh cut grass, cucumbers.

He hesitated before saying, "your mother gave me your name, sweet one."

I suppose, in order to distract me from my reality, he began telling me of the incredible balance of the mountain goats in my world. Of the way flowers turned their heads throughout the day, following the sun my world orbits. And about the intelligence of dolphins in the oceans of my world.

"Edward?"

"Mmm…?"

"Are Mommy and Daddy dead or am I dead?"

He smiled down on me with sad eyes, "You remain, my little one. Your parents have left their earth-bound bodies and travel on."

My throat hurt and my eyes stung. "Are you a guardian angel?" I whispered.

"No, Bella, not in the way your sacred books describe, but it appears we are now forever linked," he whispered back and sighed as he brushed my sticky, matted hair off my forehead.

I looked up into his face and was comforted by his warm smile as he ran his finger over my cheek and pulled me closer. I rested my head on his chest listening to the unusual rhythm of his heart. He wrapped his hoodie tighter around me, tucking it under my chin before resting his cheek on my head.

We clung to each other, as the echo of sirens filtering through the trees grew louder.

"I will need to go soon, sweet Bella. I will watch over you while they take you to the hospital and tend to your wounds." He took my chin in his hand and turned me to catch his eye.

"You will survive this, little one. Be brave and strong for me."

This stranger had come to stand in the place of my parents, comforting and safe. Now, I would lose him too.

"I'll try, Edward," I sobbed out as warm tears ran down my cheeks, the salt stinging as it flowed over cuts.

He nodded with determination before bending and kissing me tenderly on my forehead.

I closed my eyes.

When a nearby noise startled me, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the ground with a paramedic kneeling by my side.

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